Rivan calmed himself down and asked: "Who sent you the message?"

"The Henc...hman of the man who had kidnap...ed us, but he was infor...med by som...eone. Plea...se, have mercy, they wi...ll kill my fam...ily," the boy pleaded with teary eyes.

Rivan then faced Xiran and Aselia and spoke: "Xiran take Aselia back, I will handle the rest of the situation. You guys have been through enough for the day."

"But..." Xiran tried to say something but was cut off by Rivan.

"Trust me, just go," Rivan instructed with a serious expression, his blue eyes held unreadable emotions.

"Ok, call me with all the details, I want the name of the person and I want them to be brought to me," Xiran responded while getting up and taking Aselia’s hand.

"I will," Rivan replied and nodded his head.

"Be safe, Señor and my lady. We will handle everything," Rumail assured them. Irlana just stood there with wide eyes not able to formulate words at what had been transpiring.

"Thank you guys, for today, I was hoping we had to part under different circumstances," Aselia offered them a smile, before leaving with Xiran. Her face and clothes were bloodied and she had no shoes.

Xiran had called Carios to come to pick them up, he wanted to carry Aselia but she asked him to let her walk. Reaching the road they saw Carios had arrived with their ride.

He got out and was horrified to see the bloodied condition of the couple. "Sire, is everything alright?" He inquired with perturbed eyes. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"We were attacked by hounds, we are safe though. Rivan is handling the issue," Xiran briefed him as he opened the door and Aselia stepped inside.

"Anything you need me to do?" Carios inquired.

"Just take us home for now, it’s not safe here," Xiran answered before getting in the car.

Once the car started moving Xiran turned his attention to Aselia: "I am sorry for giving you the worst possible day, how I had planned that we will have fun and here everything went to hell."

The anguish marred his beautiful features. Deep down he was worried beyond anything. Who could have sent those hounds? Someone who knew of Aselia’s existence too. How much they knew? Could it be his father?

"It’s not your fault, I knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. We will face everything, together. Just like we did today and I think we make a pretty good team," she winked at him making him give her a wounded smile.

His hands which still had blood on them reached out and caressed her cheek before whispering: "You are too perfect, you know that."

"Maybe," she moved closer to cuddle with him and he wrapped his arm around her waist. Dawn was almost breaking outside and Aselia soon fell asleep in his arms but there was no sleep in Xiran’s eyes, just worries.

He peered down at her tiny mouth, which was slightly open, her hair was in a mess, and the coat and dress were matted with blood.

The day started with her being insulted, progressed with his past shadows trying to hurt her, and ended with her left bloodied. Yet she didn’t complain and remained steadfast, her resilience baffled him at times. Although, he knew she was emotionally exhausted.

Reaching back Xiran carefully carried her inside so as not to disturb her sleep. Instead of taking her to her room, he made his way to his and gently laid her on the bed.

He took off her mask and her jewelry, he wanted to remove the bloody clothes too but didn’t know how to do it without waking her up. So he grabbed a pair of scissors and began to cut down the clothes from her body.

Aselia groaned but didn’t wake up, alcohol in her system and fatigue finally taking effect. Xiran slowly removed all the bloody clothes. He then cleaned her body with a towel dipped in hot water.

This made her groggily open her eyes, "Xiran, what are you doing?" She whispered in a sleepy voice.

"Just cleaning you up, go back to sleep, you are tired," he patted her head.

"Give me a shirt to wear," she wrapped her arms around herself and requested.

Xiran brought out a white t-shirt from his cupboard and helped her slip into it. Wearing it, she fell back on the pillow and went back to sleep.

Xiran’s heart swelled seeing her rest and covered her with his duvet. He sat there beside her watching her sleep, his hand resting on her cheek. He didn’t want to disturb her today. She had been through enough.

------------------

Back on the beach after Xiran and Aselia left, Rivan asked Rumail to bind their prisoner using one of the blankets. He then shifted his attention to Irlana.

"I will be needing your phone, Irlana," he asked her very calmly.

"Sir! Why?" Her eyes were wide in horror at his request.

"I need to check something since there is a mole among us and you are the only one outside of our circle I invited here, and knew the location of our private party. I don’t trust people, so hand over your phone."

She trembled from head to toe, her ever-smiling face was grim and she made no move to hand over her phone.

"I didn’t do anything," her voice quivered.

"Miss Irlana your phone, now," he stretched his hand, his voice was cold and void of emotions but not raised, and she finally handed over her phone with trembling hands.

"Unlock it," he instructed and she swiped her thumb to unlock the phone.

Rivan checked her messages but there was nothing out of sorts, nor was there anything suspicious in her phone calls. Rumail was done with securing the prisoner and stood beside his older brother.

"Rumi, add the chip to this phone and check it," Rivan handed the phone to his younger brother. Rumail took the phone and extracting a small chip from his wallet added it to the phone. While Irlana watched them with a thudding heart.

The function of this chip was to hack into the system of the phone and restore the deleted data. Rumail had a knack for such technology and prided himself on his hacking abilities.

It took him five minutes to restore all the deleted data and what he found shocked him to his core, he had no clue a sweet girl like Irlana could do something like that.

Rumail clicked his tongue, his ocean-blue eyes which resembled his brother’s had a bit of annoyance as they locked with Irlana’s same coloured ones.

He gave her a meaningful look and handed her phone to his brother before taunting: "You have been a very naughty girl, Irlana. Tch tch, not good."

All the deleted messages and calls she had placed to a particular number in Anthos were restored and it was evident that she has indeed been the mole.

Irlana’s eyes brimmed with tears of shame and guilt at Rumail’s words and she was sure these ruthless vampires will end her life now. The day she was tasked to spy on Xiran, she knew her days were numbered.

Rivan read the texts and gave her such a disdainful look that she cowered in fear and took a few steps back. But in a millisecond he was over her and grabbed her by the throat. He hissed while choking her:

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t snap your neck right now?" Tears brimmed from her eyes but no words came out of her mouth as Rivan shook her and spoke again:

"I knew there was something shady about you, that’s why I invited you here today. You thought I didn’t notice how you stared at my friend? Girls always give him salacious looks but not you, your eyes held something else. Why?"

"Because I was asked to spy on him or my mother would be killed. Just like that boy you have captured, the one who sent me here has my mother," she hiccuped but Rivan’s eyes didn’t soften. "I had no choice."

"Everyone has a choice, always," Rivan jeered at her.

"I don’t," she struggled against his hold and requested: "Do what you want to do with me but I want to talk to Xiran before you kill me."

"I am taking you to him. For it’s his love whom you people tried to kill. Although he will show you no mercy but remember it will be me who will end your wretched life," with these words Rivan threw her toward Rumail, who caught and steadied the trembling girl.

"Take her to the car and wait for me. Warise is here, I will hand over the situation to him and meet you in the car. We are going to Xiran’s place," Rumail nodded before dragging the helpless girl along with him.

Unbeknownst to them a grotesque creature with a sharp vision watched everything unfold from a distance and flew away into the dark night to an unknown destination.